The Bellamy Next Door
by SherlockedCastiel
Summary: Bellamy and Clarke have lived side by side almost their entire lives. Now Clarke's had her heart broken and it seems to be the only thing that can help is having a fake boyfriend. And the boy next door seems like the perfect choice.
1. Chapter 1

"So you'll be the Princess and we'll be in a fairytale? I can save you!" Bellamy chirped, throwing up his sword in the air and waving it wildly around near Clarke's unamused face.

"Bellamy, I want to be the knight for once. Let me rescue you." Clarke whined and in the end they compromised the best they could. They both got swords and fought invisible dragons together.

At 6 years old, Clarke Griffin had moved next door to Bellamy Blake who'd been 7 at the time but still in the same class, didn't fancy hanging around with girls. However he'd made an exception for Clarke because she liked the mud and had a swing in her backyard.

Clarke had liked Bellamy, the goofy looking kid next door with the messiest hair she'd ever seen in her entire life because he always had a bad joke to tell her. Plus, he owned a pretty sweet pair of wooden swords.

Abby Griffin, Clarke's mother had moved to the neighborhood after the passing of her husband. She'd hoped it would give them both a fresh start which she felt they deserved. It had been a rough year.

She loved the friendship Clarke had found with the boy next door. It was a constant reminder that she'd done the right thing by moving.

* * *

At 12, Clarke and Bellamy had stopped playing fairytales and had started playing video games instead. Bellamy had gotten a games console for Christmas so his time with Clarke was spent locked up in his room, competing against each other. Luckily, they were both as good as each other so they'd never had a fight about it. In fact, they openly just teased each other about how much the other sucked at the game.

* * *

At 14, Clarke had told Bellamy about her first ever crush. A boy named Finn Collins who had just moved into her class. Clarke liked him. Bellamy did not. He still held a grudge from the time Finn beat him in a spelling bee and then rubbed his nose in it, despite the fact Clarke assured Bellamy that Finn wasn't like that. Still Bellamy tried to be as supportive as possible towards Clarke's crush, and even offered her advice on what boys liked.

Secretly he sort of wished Clarke had a crush on him, but he didn't care too much. Clarke was just his friend.

* * *

At 16 Clarke told Bellamy about her first kiss while she pushed him gently on the tatty swing in her backyard that had been there as long as she could remember. Bellamy had cheered her at first, but still teased her a little about the fact it took her almost 8 months to get anywhere with Finn. Talk about taking things slow.

Bellamy was yet to have his first kiss, but it didn't bother him. It bothered him that Clarke spent so much of her free time at Finns now and he hardly saw her.

They had their first fight two weeks into Finns and Clarke's relationship over something very small. Clarke had promised to come to Sunday lunch with him considering she was such good friends with his little sister and his mother loved her, but she'd never showed so Bellamy got pissed. And they had a fight about how Clarke didn't care about their friendship anymore which she disagreed with.

Bellamy had made it up to her though. As their windows faced each other, he'd put up a big sign in his window saying he was sorry. She'd left one saying she was too and then she'd called out the window to invite him over for coco, which he never said no to.

Him and Finn hung out a couple times after that, but they never got on so Clarke left it alone. She spent time with them separately and tried not to bring up one boy when she was with the other. It worked pretty well.

* * *

4 months later, Bellamy had started dating a girl named Fox who was in his class at school. He'd realized she had a crush on him, but hadn't wanted to lead her on. Besides he didn't feel he had the time to have a girlfriend before, but with Clarke spending time with Finn, he thought it was a good idea.

Clarke liked Fox and was very friendly to her, but said she wasn't really that interested in hanging out with the two of them.

The time Bellamy and Clarke spent together became less and less until finally Clarke only really saw him when she popped round with Octavia after school when she was helping tutor her. Octavia was in the year below and needed help with Biology so Miss Blake had asked Clarke to help. They were friendly to each other but still felt a little awkward.

Bellamy had broken it off with Fox about 3 weeks later because he didn't think it was working. He didn't feel the same way about her that she felt about him.

Clarke had found out at school and had made the effort to go hang out with Bellamy the next day. They'd broken out the old games console and played well into the early hours of the morning. Neither of their parents really noticed. Miss Blake was so used to having Clarke round she'd forgotten she'd been up there, and Abby was doing a shift at the hospital.

As she couldn't be bothered to go home that night, she'd kipped on the small pull out bed Bellamy still kept in the corner of his room. They'd used to use it as kids to make a den. They used to pretend it was a castle, or a tent, or their personal favorites, a spaceship. Up until the ages of about 10, both the kids had wanted to be astronauts.

Of course, Clarke was still dating Finn so their friendship didn't go back to exactly how it used to be. Clarke came over once or maybe twice a week which was nice, but they weren't as close as they would have liked to be.

Bellamy carried on dating, but nothing long term. He couldn't find a girl he liked hanging out with for too long, and most of them didn't share his interests. Still, going out on dates felt a lot better than staying in and doing nothing by himself. Plus Octavia and his mum were almost always arguing because Octavia, at only 16, wanted to date a 19 year old name Lincoln. Bellamy joined in the arguing sometimes because he was protective of his little sister, but he felt bad because he didn't know the guy. Maybe he'd be great for Octavia, no matter her age.

He wished he could talk to Clarke about it, but he hadn't seen her in a week or so, so he'd feel bad going to her with his problems. Besides, she'd probably be too busy, so he left it. This marked the start of his keeping secrets from her, which he'd never done before.

* * *

This brings us to the present day, which Bellamy was spending like he usually would when he didn't have a date. He was sat on his bed, making notes out of his textbook when suddenly Clarke walked in crying.

"Clarke? What happened? What's wrong?" He burst out, sitting up and Clarke just collapsed in front of him and held him tight. After a moment of hesitation, Bellamy wrapped his arms around her and lent them both back against his headboard while she was silent for a few moments, just crying.

"The jerk was cheating on me!" Clarke burst out and Bellamy felt his blood start to boil. He'd rip his stupid long hair out of his skull, he told himself before he reminded himself that was a very bad idea.

"Turns out he had a girlfriend from his old school, and he was still seeing her. She just moved here, can you believe it?" She hugged Bellamy tighter and he stroked her hair in what she hoped was a caring way. He wasn't great at this kind of stuff, and he was tempted to go and get Octavia to see if she could help.

"I'm sorry Clarke. He's a dick, just forget about him."

"I can't. He's going to be everywhere, he's going to know I'm upset and not over him while he's there with his girlfriend in paradise." She wiped a couple of tears away from her cheek. "Everyone's going to think I'm a complete idiot. He kept me going for so long."

"That's not important." Bellamy said in a soothing tone. _That's not important because the guy was an ass_, he thought to himself. At least now he had a proper reason to be bitter about Finn.

Clarke laughed weakly again. "I really need another boyfriend pronto." She joked.

Bellamy thought the stupidest thought ever. But seeing her this upset was enough for him to voice it.

"So date me."

* * *

**Hello, hoped you liked this first chapter, I know it's a little rough around the edges but I'm very excited to be writing it. I'd love some feedback so please leave a review if you have a comment. Next chapter will be up shortly!**


	2. Chapter 2

"What?" Clarke managed to stammer out despite her teary state.

"Fake date. I meant fake date me." Bellamy quickly assured her as he started to panic. He felt a little queasy and his heart was pounding. This had been a stupid idea. "I don't know, I thought it was a good idea. You could get back at him, pretend it didn't matter, save face, I...it doesn't matter. Stupid idea." Bellamy was so flustered he could barely think straight. Clarke being curled up in his lap was not helping the situation in the slightest.

"No..." Clarke wiped her face and looked like she was stopping crying. "No, Bell, that's a great idea. I mean, Finn would hate it. He never liked you. I could get back at him." Bellamy was sort of keen on the idea of hurting Finn, but he was thinking more along the lines of punching him in the face.

"I wasn't thinking it through Clarke, forget it." Bellamy tried to dismiss her by getting up as she was less upset now, and separating himself physically from her made him think a little better.

"Please Bellamy, I'm begging you, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, it's brilliant!" Clarke actually smiled. "I'd do anything, please. Pretend to date me for a little while just until this whole thing is forgotten."

Bellamy realized he did need something from Clarke. Really badly, but hadn't wanted to ask her before. "Look Princess, Octavia needs help with English at school. If you help her get her grade up, I can help you." Bellamy was trying to think about Octavia, and how this was for her best intentions when in actual fact it was probably, okay certainly, more for him. Just the idea of dating Clarke, even if it was fake, was getting his heart going.

However the idea that she would be faking feelings for him had to be considered. Bellamy wasn't sure how much of that he could take. He'd want it to be real, and he'd get hurt. All he could do would be to try and distance himself a little. They could act how they'd usually act but with maybe a little more physical contact.

Bellamy gulped. A little more physical contact.

"Of course! That would be great! So you'll do it?" Clarke asked, her watery eyes staring at him, wearing him down. This was such a bad idea.

"Yes. I'll do it." He could hardly believe the words came out of his mouth. "But you have to be willing to help me out with school too, and we set some serious ground rules." He added quickly and Clarke nodded and thought for a moment.

"No kissing." She said immediately and Bellamy ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach. He told himself any man would have felt the same, because he'd just lost out on being able to make out with an attractive woman. It had nothing to do with the fact it was Clarke, he would have felt that way about any girl is what he told himself.

"Agreed." Bellamy said. "No telling our parents."

"How about holding hands and stuff like that? Too much?" Clarke said in all seriousness and Bellamy tried to think of an excuse as to why that wouldn't be too much.

"Well...if you want people to know we're dating quickly, and that we're happy maybe we should?" He wasn't convinced that sounded genuine but Clarke seemed to buy it as she nodded.

"Okay then. It can't mess up our friendship. The minute it starts to get weird we end it. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Bellamy nodded, trying to convince himself this wasn't a huge mistake and coming up short. The only thing that made him feel a tiny fraction better was the fact that Clarke had stopped crying. Hell, she looked quite happy.

"Thank you so much Bell. Words can't describe how much you're helping me out right now. You're a true friend." She hugged him tight and caught him by surprise. He hugged her back but it just made him feel guilty that his intentions weren't exactly unselfish.

"I should go." Clarke said, glancing down at the watch that used to be her fathers. "Mom will be back soon. I'll meet you outside in the morning and we can talk about it some more before we get to school?" Bellamy, not trusting himself to say anything else nodded and waved at her until she left.

He was so screwed.

* * *

"I'm so scared." Clarke said yet again as Bellamy pulled up his car into school.

"We'll be fine. Our story is solid. We're agreed on everything. It's gonna be fine." Bellamy smiled like he wasn't telling a big fat lie. He had no idea if they were going to be fine. He hoped they were. Clarke needed this.

They stepped out of the car and joined each other facing the school. A couple people were already starting to glance over at Clarke and she looked like she might start to get upset so Bellamy just went for it and took hold of her hand. One girl's mouth dropped open and Bellamy recognized her from his Bio class.

"Thank you." Clarke said quietly as they started to walk into school together. She could feel people's stares burning into her skin and she felt so bad for dragging Bellamy into all this. She felt so bad she almost pulled away and put an end to the whole thing. But actually Bellamy's strong hold on her hand was very reassuring and she didn't want to let go.

"Clarke!" Harper's voice chimed from the side of them. Harper's smile dropped a little when she saw their hand's intertwined. "Bellamy! What...When did this happen?" Bellamy nodded at Clarke who took a deep breath and told their carefully rehearsed story.

"I found out that Finn was cheating on me. And I went to Bellamy for comfort and we walked and realized that we actually wanted to be with each other. I always knew Finn wasn't right for me, and I now know that Bellamy is." Clarke gave his hand a little squeeze but it barely registered with Bellamy who felt like suddenly he'd received a large sting. Clarke had sounded so real. He told himself it wasn't. It was a fake relationship with fake stories and fake feelings. Feelings that he had to fake to.

"I'm so happy for you too." Harper said with no more questions. She wasn't too interested in the details thank god. However Harper did spot what she assumed would be trouble behind the couple and she was a bit more interested in that. She quickly nodded behind Bellamy and Clarke's heads so they looked around.

Finn and Raven.

Finn was looking cocky as hell, Bellamy thought but Clarke was trying to focus on not looking upset at seeing them together. Raven was looking highly uncomfortable. She was the new girl around here and everybody already knew who she was because they were too nosy to keep out of it.

Clarke felt marginally better when she saw the smug look on Finn's face drop like a brick when she saw her holding hands with Bellamy. She even dared smile at him as he headed over, despite Raven's obvious effort to convince him otherwise.

"Clarke?" Finn said like he couldn't believe it was her. He shot a filthy look at Bellamy who decided just to ignore it. He was too pissed at him right now. "Clarke, I was wondering if I could have a word with you."

"I think you said everything the other day Finn, when I caught you with your throat down her mouth." Clarke spat out, letting her anger vent, assured by Bellamy's hand in hers. Raven looked so confused. Clarke realized she had no idea what they was going on. Finn hadn't told her.

"You just ran out, you didn't give me a chance to explain." Finn tried to reason but Bellamy got a little closer to him and spoke before Clarke had a chance.

"It sounds like she doesn't want to talk to you Collins, so why don't you back off?" He was a bit taller than Finn so he was hoping this would make him a bit worried and he'd back off but he didn't.

"Finn, what's going on?" Raven asked from the side and Finn looked like he'd only just remembered she was there.

"What's going on Raven is that your Finn here has been dating Clarke since he moved here."

"What?!" Raven burst out and turned to Finn. "You've been seeing somebody else?"

"Raven, I can explain! It wasn't..." Finn started but Clarke couldn't contain herself.

"What? It wasn't your fault? Need I remind you, it was you who asked me out, it was you who kissed me? It was entirely your fault!"

"I can't believe you." Raven spat at Finn and then stormed off, turning everybody's attention to Bellamy, Finn and Clarke. People started whispering to each other and it was just making Bellamy more angry.

"Clarke, what the hell?" Finn yelled.

"What the hell? She had every right to know!" Clarke yelled back, not really caring who heard.

"Screw you Clarke, God, you're such a bitch." Clarke didn't register Bellamy's hand leaving her own until she heard it colliding with Finn's face. He yelled out in pain and stumbled back quickly, hitting a couple of bystanders behind him.

"Don't you dare call Clarke a bitch!" Bellamy hurled at him. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about." He said, taking hold of Clarke's hand once more. She wasn't sure how she felt about all this, but she did get a sense of satisfaction seeing Finn's face bright red on one side.

"Bellamy Blake, what is going on here?" A stern voice bellowed from behind him.

"Ah, Principle Jaha." Bellamy tried to say brightly. "I can assure you, if we step into your office, I can explain everything." Bellamy smiled the biggest smile he could manage. He gestured towards the office door, trying to make a joke about the whole thing. "Shall we?"

* * *

**Hope you're liking this so far, thanks a million for all the positive feedback so far! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Clarke was waiting outside of Jaha's office even though lessons has already started. After Bellamy had left, Finn had been whisked away to the nurse's office and Raven had spoken to her.

"Listen, was all that stuff true? About you and Finn.." She trailed off and Clarke was worried the girl was about to cry. She wanted to hate her but instead all she felt was sympathy. Finn had played them both.

"I'm afraid so. I'm sorry, I had no idea about you and him." She admitted truthfully.

"No." Raven shook her head and tried to look confident. "Why would you? He probably never even mentioned my name."

"I'm sorry." Clarke repeated.

"Tell your boyfriend thanks. He had that punch coming for him. I'm disappointed it wasn't me though." Clarke smiled at Raven's comment. She bet Finn would have come off just as bad if Raven would have gotten to him.

With that Raven had gone in the direction Finn had been taken off in and she left Clarke reconsidering her choices about the whole fake-dating Bellamy thing.

"What are you doing out here, Princess?" Bellamy teased walking out of the Principles office.

"Waiting for you. What the hell did you think you were doing back there?" She pulled on his arm to get him to look back at her and he swerved around.

"I was defending you and before you say anything, he deserved it. And you deserved better than him." Bellamy let out this thought and then realized how odd it sounded it context. However Clarke didn't seem to notice, she was too angry.

"We're in school! The whole reason we're doing this is so I keep out of the spot light and so it's less messy. You've made it a million times worse."

"I didn't do it to make things worse, I did it because I was angry!" The bell sounded and Bellamy and Clarke feel silent as people started to filter out of their classes.

"Bellamy this can't carry on for long. You can't make it seem like we're desperately in love by punching Finn in his face, otherwise we can't break up quickly." Clarke reminded him in a hushed tone.

"Yeah.." Bellamy spotted a very wounded looking Finn being escorted by a nurse most likely to the hospital and realized how stupid he was about to be. Finn looked over and without hesitation Bellamy placed his hands on Clarkes jaw and leaned down and kissed her.

She responded almost instantly, tightening her grip on his arm as Bellamy threaded his fingers through her hair and ran them over her shoulder.

Clarke broke away and turned around to see Finn being taken away and looking very pissed.

"Now he's got the message. No more punching." Bellamy stated, trying to ignore this gut feeling that he should just forget Finn and kiss Clarke again.

"That wasn't part the of the plan." Clarke said sounded wounded.

"Plans aren't always the best. What's wrong with a little chaos?" Bellamy smiled and decided it was time for a new idea.

"I'll pick you up after school today okay? There's some things I think we should discuss. Out front." And he walked away from her, because if he stayed he would have kissed her again. And this time he wouldn't have any other excuse except he wanted to.

Bellamy waited patiently outside of school, half expecting Clarke not to turn up after the dick move he just pulled, but even though she was late she did turn up.

After a brief hello and nothing else they headed to Bellamy's car. Unsure of where to take her Bellamy stopped at the first place he saw that would be quiet, which was a deserted park.

"Come with me." Bellamy said and wondered off to sit on the swings, remembering how much Clarke used to love swinging. Clarke sat beside him on a slighter higher swing.

"We need to rethink our plan." Bellamy pointed out, very gently starting to swing.

"I agree. Should we just stop it completely?"

"No!" Bellamy said a bit too quickly. "No, I think that would look weird."

Clarke narrowed her eyes. "What are you suggesting then?"

"We can't just pretend to be together at school with no physical contact or change at all, and then ignore each other at home. What if one of our parents found out? Wouldn't they ask questions?"

"So what are we going to do Bell? I didn't think this through." Gladness washed over Bellamy at the sound of his old nickname, encouraging him to vocalise his idea.

"Don't say anything until I've finished explaining." Clarke nodded. "The way I see it is that if we just act normal, people are gonna think you're just using me for a rebound."

Bellamy took a deep breath. "I propose we actually sort of date." Clarke went to say something but he stopped her. "You've been with Finn for a long time, he's been your only boyfriend. I want you to experience dating because it'll get you over him a million times faster."

Clarke wasn't sure what to think about the idea. "Obviously we both know we're not dating. This is not a real relationship and it won't be. The same rules apply as before, except maybe I get to put my arm around you every once in a while, or kiss you on the cheek. Nothing like today I promise."

"So what would happen?" Clarke asked.

"We'd go out to places together. I show you what actual datings like, because you said it yourself Finn wasn't romantic. At home we can hang out, no funny business. I could really use your help studying and Octavia too. You can used to dating again, and we can piss Finn off. Besides..I've missed being your friend in all honesty Clarke. It would be nice to get back to how we used to be."

Clarke smiled and thought the offer sounded perfect. The closer friends her and Bellamy were, the easier it would be to pretend to be together. "That could be doable. But no kissing right? Only in life or death situations?"

"Life of death. Deal."


End file.
